<< Back 12/11/02 Nature notebook SMN Birds: ° Pied-billed grebe, horned grebe, great blue heron, ring-billed gull, Bonaparte’s gull, hooded merganser, red-breasted merganser, common goldeneye, redhead, lesser scaup, ruddy duck, bufflehead, American black duck, gadwall, belted kingfisher, American pipit and rusty blackbird (these are some of the species recorded from Lake Junaluska through Monday 12/8, Friday 12/6 was the last day I saw the goldeneye, this report is from the Carolina Field Birds listserv, personal conversation and personal observation) ° Winter finch report, Muff and Bill Lyon reported a pair of purple finches at their feeders on Cullowhee Mountain, last week. ° Scouting a stop on the CFB Christmas Bird Count, scheduled for Jan. 4, a spoil bank and grown over area near Francis Farm Road and the Old Asheville Hwy; red-tailed hawk, morning dove, northern flicker, pileated woodpecker, downy woodpecker, blue jay, Carolina chickadee, house wren, Carolina wren, northern mockingbird, robin, eastern bluebird, cedar waxwing, northern cardinal, American goldfinch, eastern towhee, dark-eyed junco, field sparrow, white-crowned sparrow, white-throated sparrow, fox sparrow, swamp sparrow and song sparrow, Don Hendershot, 12/8) ° Rusty blackbird, red-winged blackbird, brown-headed cowbird in with the hundreds of starlings and rock doves (pigeon) at Queen’s farm (recorded from road shoulder near Test Farm Road) ° Ann Kirby reported, last week that Lola, the rufous hummer banded at her home last month has departed for warmer climes, hopefully she will come back for a visit next November.